Mississippi Home Miraculously Survives Tornado

A Mississippi family is feeling thankful after their home miraculously escaped the wrath of a tornado that destroyed nearly everything else surrounding the property, they said.

At least a half dozen tornadoes were reported in Mississippi on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service in Jackson. Jeff Huggins of Rankin County said one touched down just a few feet away from his mother's home in Leesburg.

"The wind got really loud and a lot of [tree] limbs and stuff started breaking and popping," Huggins told local ABC affiliate WAPT. "All of a sudden, just the roar. The lights went out because the power poles were going down and flashing."

The tornado knocked over power lines and uprooted huge trees around Huggins' mother's home. But the house itself was spared. Huggins said it's also a miracle that no one was hurt.

"All of these trees out here, everything fell around it. No damage at all to the house," he told WAPT.

And then, just as quickly as it appeared, the tornado was gone.

"I didn't have time to be scared," Huggins told WAPT. "It was all of a sudden, then it was over. We started looking around saying, 'Gosh, look at this.'"

Members of the community were also astonished to see that the family's house was left untouched.

"They are just lucky," one neighbor, Larry Griffin, told WAPT. "You see a lot of tree damage, but you don't even see a shingle off the house. It's amazing."

The National Weather Service in Jackson confirmed that a tornado with a preliminary EF-1 rating touched down in Rankin and Scott counties on Tuesday around 4 p.m. local time. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said damage was reported in 15 counties, though there were no reports of injuries, according to WAPT.